


a tragedy in three acts

by Pierulestheworld



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, all the sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29030244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pierulestheworld/pseuds/Pierulestheworld
Summary: Death Eaters come to the Winger household.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	a tragedy in three acts

**Author's Note:**

> This is from like over a year ago whoops. Anyways, it was a sort of stylistic experiment so the goal was to have 3 parts of 500 words each, and each would have a different pov character. And also it needed to have lots of sad foreshadowing lol

**ACT I**

Priya Winger was not a part of Albus Dumbledore’s secret order against Lord Voldemort. It was not in her nature to fight. But she was sympathetic to its cause. She did not like Voldemort and wanted him gone as quickly as possible. So while she was not a part of this secret order, she did help them out.

Her house was used as a safe house any member could use as long as they spoke a certain passcode. The real members of the order rarely used her house for that reason, though. Mainly they would fire call her at midnight asking if she could come to a different safe house and heal unspecified injuries obtained in unspecified circumstances.

By day, Priya worked at St. Mungo’s as a Healer, working with patients suffering from spells gone wrong. By night, she did much the same, except she wasn’t getting paid.

Priya enjoyed helping Dumbledore’s secret order, but there was a reason she would never join full time. She wasn’t scared of dying or dueling, but she was scared of something happening to her son.

Talbott was her entire life. Such a sweet, kind boy. She did not want to leave him motherless.

It ate at her, that her son had to grow up during a war. The charged atmosphere of fear and paranoia was not one a child should grow up in. Priya tried to shield him from it, but sometimes she worried that she was just making him sheltered. But it’s better to be sheltered than aware of atrocities when you are only a seven-year-old boy, yes?

That’s what Priya tells herself.

She took many measures to make sure Talbott was protected. Much more than the usual mother, but it was due to be paranoid in times like this.

Years ago, soon after she had graduated from Hogwarts (she had been in Ravenclaw, a Prefect, and graduated with 5 O’s—not to brag) she had undertaken the process to become an Animagus. It had been a long and hard process, but Transfiguration was her favorite subject, and she had kept up a correspondence with Minerva McGonagall throughout it.

Priya succeeded in her undertaking and had come out with the snowy white wings of a swan. She loved being an Animagus. The Ministry of Magic knew about her, but no one else did unless she told them. It was an extra layer of protection from those who wished to hurt her, and she relished it.

So, she helped her son become an Animagus.

It was difficult. Even more difficult than becoming an Animagus herself. But it was worth it.

She did not register Talbott with the Ministry. Her son was an Animagus to protect him, while the Ministry’s Animagus registry was open to the public. The protection would be useless then.

“Always remember this,” she had told him when he first turned back into a human. “Never tell anyone. This will be your strongest protection against those who might harm you, love.”

**ACT II**

It had been a nice day. Mum hadn’t gone into work, so Talbott had worked with her in her garden. Well, Mum worked in the garden while Talbott had watched birds and butterflies’ flit about. It was very fun.

After he had been sent upstairs to have a bath, he had eaten dinner with Mum and Dad. He loved dinners with them. Dad was a very good cook who made a lot of spicy dishes. Mum made a dessert mostly, and she liked to have Talbott help her. He loved helping her in the kitchen the same way he loved helping her in the garden.

He didn’t help much in the kitchen either, but he did have fun.

It was at sunset when Talbott’s life ripped into pieces that would never be put back together.

His dad had looked out the window and gone still. They had been reading a book together, so Talbott tried to look out the window too. Dad jerked him backwards.

“That hurt!” Talbott whined.

“Hush, Talbott.” His father usually had glowing golden brown skin, but it had gone ashen. “Talbott, go outside, turn into an eagle and fly as fast and far as you can go. Don’t look back.”

Talbott was scared now. “Daddy?” He said, slipping back into the more childish name.

His dad released him. “Now, Talbott. Go.” He looked back at his son. “I love you, Talbott.”

He drew his wand, and that frightened Talbott enough to dash into the hallway where he bumped into his mother.

“Talbott, what is—”

“Mum, Dad said to turn into an eagle and fly away and I don’t know what’s happening and he’s scaring me.”

“What?”

There was a crashing noise and his father and strangers began to yell. His mum pushed him away, towards the back door. “Talbott, your father was right.” Tears were in her eyes. “I love you, baby, now fly.”

Talbott was shaking, but he followed his mum’s instructions. He distantly heard her fling the door open and cry, “Jay!”

He had practiced turning into an eagle lots. It wasn’t usually hard, but he was so worried about what was happening to his parents that it took longer than usual. He only had time to fly into the topmost branches of a nearby tree when two people came out of the back door. They were dressed in all black and wore masks.

Talbott’s feather’s quivered and he fluttered from branch to branch. He needed to see if his parents were alright. There was a tall tree by the sitting room window. He would be hidden, but his eagle eyes would be able to see everything that happened in the house.

He got there in time to see his mum fall onto the floor next to his dad. If Talbott were a human then, he would’ve started crying.

“One, two—I was told there was a brat! Where’s the kid? We can’t go back to the Dark Lord with the assignment unfinished!”

**ACT III**

They were too late.

Word had come to the Order of the Phoenix earlier that one of their safe houses had been found out. Someone not in the Order proper had been seen with Order members and their location discovered.

The question then had been _who_ was in danger.

Too late, they learned it was Priya and Jay Winger.

James stared up at the Dark Mark hovering above the small house. The door had been smashed off its hinges and one window was broken. And then there was that ugly brand floating above the house.

Sirius made a growling sound next to him and waved his wand. The Dark Mark slowly vanished. James clapped Sirius on the back and followed Moody into the house, heart growing heavier with each step.

He didn’t know Priya and Jay well. They stayed out of most Order missions. He really only knew Priya because Sirius was an idiot who constantly needed healing. Sometimes James thought he got injured just so the pretty Healer with the two-toned hair would nanny him.

_But that won’t be happening anymore_ , James thought as he stared blankly at the Winger’s dead bodies. Priya had gotten the Killing Curse definitely. No marks visible. It was harder to tell with Jay. There were several deep gashes over his body, any of which could have been lethal.

James closed his eyes. It didn’t feel right thinking about how they had been killed in such a detached way. They weren’t close, but he knew these people. They deserved better than apathetic observations.

“Still warm,” Moody muttered, a metaphorical dark cloud gathering above his head. “Must’ve missed the Death Eaters by minutes.”

Sirius kicked a wall. “Damnit! We should’ve figured that info out earlier.”

Something was bothering James.

“We did our best.” Moody said gruffly. “Casualties happen.”

“ _Casualties happen?”_

“Where’s their son?”

Sirius and Moody looked at him. James felt numb. “Priya and Jay. They had a son. That’s why they never joined the Order properly.”

Moody was on it immediately. “Homenum Revelio.”

A noise came from the upstairs, probably unnerved by how the charm felt. James moved before either of his companions.

Dark thoughts swirled in his head. All he could think was, _what if this were Harry_? What if him and Lily were targeted for their affiliation with the Order of the Phoenix and Harry was left behind in the house they had been killed in. The thought brought physical pain.

His son wasn’t born yet, there was more than a few months until the birth in July or August, but the thought of a child alone in this situation was driving the parent in him mad with grief.

He cast Homenum Revelio again, and followed the new noise to a bedroom. James’ heart constricted—this was obviously Jay and Priya’s room.

In a corner behind the bed sat a small boy with a tear stained face. He clutched a necklace with a white feather on the end.

“Where’s Mummy and Daddy?”


End file.
